This invention relates to ambulance cots, and more particularly to a multi-level roll-in cot with high ground clearance and additional patient comfort features which may be used in different types of emergency vehicles having receiving floors of differing heights and wheel wells of differing clearances.
Conventional ambulance cots are provided with wheels to enable easy movement from one location to another, including rolling the cot into and out of an emergency vehicle such as an ambulance, van, station wagon, or modified truck. In their simplest forms, such cots have nonextensible wheels mounted beneath the cot frame.
More sophisticated types of ambulance cots also exist. Elevating cots are available in which the cot frame is mounted on legs which are designed to collapse as the cot is placed in the vehicle. Cots of this type may have two positions of use, or may have multiple adjustable positions. That is, such cots have a first "down" position in which the legs are fully collapsed and an elevated "up" position in which the cot is at a standard predetermined height for transferring the patient to a bed. Cots having adjustable positioning features may be positioned at a number of intermediate heights between the fully down and up positions.
However, cots of this type must be fully collapsed before being placed in the vehicle, which requires that the emergency medical attendants to bear the full weight of the patient while the undercarriage of the cot is being collapsed. To overcome this problem, ambulance cots have been designed with an extra set of retractable loading wheels which project forwardly of one end of the cot frame. In this manner, the cot may be wheeled to the vehicle in an up or elevated position and the loading wheels placed onto the floor of the vehicle. With one end of the cot supported by the vehicle floor, the undercarriage of the cot may then be collapsed as the remainder of the cot is rolled into the vehicle.
Roll-in ambulance cots have also been designed to accommodate emergency vehicles of differing types having different floor heights. For example, Ferneau et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,767,148, teach a multiple level roll-in cot in which the leading end may be inclined upwardly even when in its elevated position to accommodate vehicles having unusually high floor levels. The cot also has back and foot position adjustable features.
However, the need still exists for roll-in ambulance cots which are even more versatile in their design and which possess a combination of features which permit their use in a wide variety of emergency vehicles while providing additional patient comfort features.